Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to personal electronics. More specifically, the present invention relates to a customizable housing for personal electronics
Related Art
Personal electronics, such as portable stereos, computer equipment and the like are commonplace. One popular category of personal electronics is portable speakers that can be linked to an audio source, such as a cell phone, tablet computer, or similar device for playing music files. Like cell phones and tablets, design is a crucial feature consumers turn to for portable speakers and similar electronics. Although design characteristics drive sales to a large extent, the ability to provide only one industrial design for these products remains limiting.
Three dimensional (3D) printing techniques have been developed as a way to create a variety of consumer products based on 3D design technology. While originally a novelty, improvements in 3D printing technology have enabled manufacturers to offer 3D printed designs on the commercial market on a large scale. One popular business model for all technology is to provide a user interface via a website or similar interactive feature allowing users to create their own designs based on a field of predetermined parameters, and have those designs 3D printed and delivered to the user. Currently customized 3D printed goods are presently limited to jewelry or other small items that are customized in their entirety and have few or no operational components.
Hence, what is needed is a customizable, user designed, 3D or similarly manufactured housing to provide user customization in the field of consumer electronics. An object of the present invention is therefore to allow consumer electronics, such as speakers, to be conventionally mass produced, while permitting users to create individual designs for such consumer electronics. Another object of the invention is to provide a customized housing for consumer electronics, that can be quickly and easily removed and replaced with an alternate housing design. Another object of the invention is to allow users to customize and create several different housing designs that can be quickly and easily replaced according to user preference. Another object of the invention is to provide pre-made designs that may be combined with custom designs to provide greater choice in customizing user electronics. Another object of the invention is to provide a customized housing for a personal speaker, that provides excellent sound isolation and dampening features to enhance sound quality.
These and other objects of the invention are more fully discussed in the following specification and illustrations.